ROADATLANTA09

ROAD ATLANTA

Road Atlanta
Flowery Branch, GA April 5th, 2009

NINTH AT ROAD ATLANTA FOR JAKE HOLDEN AND CORONA EXTRA HONDA SUPERBIKE

Image by Brian J. Nelson Corona Extra Honda Racing’s Jake Holden took a best ninth on the Corona Honda CBR1000RR Superbike at this weekend’s event at Road Atlanta. He placed tenth in the other Superbike race.

Jake struggled getting the bike set up for the tricky Road Atlanta track and commented, “I am having a hard time getting the gearing right. Last year we just used five gears but are trying all six now. It’s upsetting the bike when I drop into first!”

Jake qualified on the third row in eleventh, disappointed he was unable to get the bike set up to his liking with the very limited practice time. Race one was run on a lovely sunny day. Jake got a fair start getting up to 9th after lap one. He settled into the position but was always struggling with the same gearing issue from earlier practice and qualifying.

He lost the position on lap three and a little later lost touch with tenth and settled for a lonely eleventh for most of the balance of the race. He moved up a position through a mechanical problem for another rider by the flag.! Afterwards Jake said, “I just couldn’t get comfortable with the gearbox and decided to play it safe!”

The crew made a number of changes for race two trying to address the gearing issue. Morning practice saw Jake a full second faster than the day before so there was hope that the changes could be successful for the race. With dark rain clouds looming and intermittent sprinkles the race got underway with Jake in 10th after lap one. Unfortunately, though Jake was running faster than on day one and was able to stay with the lead pack he could not make a dent in the group. Eventually he was able to pass the Ducati of Pegram, taking ninth, and then close on Bostrom for eighth but ran out of time so settled for ninth at the flag.

Jake said, “I thought we might have sorted stuff out but I just couldn’t make it up on the guys in front. I could see where I was losing out. My times were close but I was on the edge and didn’t want to throw it away!”

In its “Race to the Lime” Corona Extra Honda Racing is proud to be partnering with: Parts Unlimited, Cycle Gear, Pro Honda Oils, AGV, FMF, Autolite, Hotbodies Racing, K&N, Motion Pro, Vortex, Dainese, GPR, Ogio, CR&A, RK, Dunlop, Powerstands, Bellco, Adran, K&L, HRC, Acme Garage, Vicci, Fluid Designs, EBSCO Media, MTS.